I'm very fond of the strictly visual cartoons I did when I was breaking in in the 1970's. Over time I migrated to a more verbal approach.
Robert MankoffThere's usually nothing in a guy's joke in which we have to understand what's going on in someone else's mind.
Robert MankoffThere's all kinds of theories among the cartoonists: start with funniest, end with funniest.
Robert MankoffI know everybody wants humor to be subversive and speak truth to power. I don't think power's been listening, incidentally.
Robert MankoffSometimes you're noodling around with a sketch and something incongruous in the drawing calls forth the caption and other times you think of a line and just have to find a place for it. A cartoon with a caption like "I don't want to live forever, but I sure as hell don't want to be dead forever either" sprang into my head and I just had to find the right venue for it which was an old couple talking to each other.
Robert Mankoff